F E AT U R E D I N S I G H T S

DELIVERING CONSUMER CL ARIT Y

BITING INTO THE

INDIAN SNACKING
MARKET
SALES IN THE SNACKING CATEGORY HAVE
GROWN MORE THAN SIX-FOLD FROM 8,000
CRORES IN 2004 TO 47,000 CRORES IN 2013.
INDIAS TIER 1 TOWNS, THE REST OF URBAN,
AND RURAL AREAS OFFER THE MOST
POTENTIAL IN TERMS OF GROWTH AND
OPPORTUNITY WHEN IT COMES TO SNACKING.
PRODUCTS THAT TALK ABOUT STRONG TASTE
AND TEXTURE CUES AND WOVEN WITH
APPROPRIATE EMOTIONAL INSIGHT DO BETTER
THAN THOSE THAT DONT.
The global recession clearly hasnt had an impact on the average Indians
taste buds. Snacking is on the rise. Increasing disposable incomes, a
need for convenience from fast-paced lifestyles and a cultural tradition
of snacking between meals have fuelled explosive growth in this sector.
From a modest 8,000 crores in 2004, the market today stands at 47,000
croresmore than six times the amount a decade ago!
And it should only continue to grow. Consumers changing dietary
habits and willingness to try new things are pushing these numbers even
higher. In addition, children are having more say in buying decisions.
As a result, this unexpected growth is not isolated to urban areas. In
terms of opportunity, tier I towns, the rest of urban, and rural areas are
the ones that offer the most potential for retailers and manufacturers,
fostering our belief that marketing focused on these areas will drive
growth.

1
Copyright 2014 The Nielsen Company

CHANGING LIFEST YLES LEAD TO CHANGES EVEN IN FOOD CULTURE.

CONSUMERS TODAY ARE MORE AWARE OF THE VARIOUS OPTIONS
AVAIL ABLE, AND ARE EASILY BOREDLEADING TO INCREASED
EXPERIMENTATION. FURTHER, THE FAST-PACED LIFE AND PAUCIT Y
OF TIME HAS ALSO LED MANY TO EAT OUT MORE.

SNACKING ON THE UPTICK

45,395

(16)

34

(19)

21

(18)

19

(16)

26

(11)

MARKETING FOCUSING
ON FAST GROWING LOWER
TOWN CL ASSES WILL
DRIVE BETTER GROWTH
IN THE SNACKING AND
IMPULSE SPACE.

SNACKING
METRO

TIER 1

REST OF URBAN

RURAL

Figures in %
Figures in bracket denote growth
Source: Nielsen

SOMETHING TO CHEW ON
The average consumer seldom realizes the amount of thought that
goes into his bag of chips or box of biscuits. But if youre a player in
this sector, you probably know the very real danger of a perfectly good
product being rejected by the market. A product being taken off shelves
is every manufacturers nightmare.
Why do some products succeed while others fail? We have studied and
analysed more than a hundred snacking initiatives and found that the
key lies in building a successful proposition.

FEATURED INSIGHTS | BITING INTO THE INDIAN SNACKING MARKET

REASON TO BELIEVE

CONSUMER SEGMENT

TASTE

INSIGHT

BRAND POSITIONING

BENEFIT

HEADLINE

PACK AND IMAGERY

TAGLINE

SNACK
CONCEPT
Our studies show that creating a path-breaking concept in snacking
is no easy task. As a matter of fact, creating a winning proposition in
the snacking space is observed to be more difficult than other foods.
So what are the factors that will support and amplify your concept? A
concept or proposition is generally made up of the below key factors:
Headline: What is your key differentiator? E.g., The worlds best
biscuits now in India!
Reason to believe: What will build consumer belief in the benefits
of your product? E.g., Crunchy and tasty snacks made from healthy
ingredient X.
Insight: This will tie in with benefits to the consumer. Whats in it for
them? E.g., I want to stay fit and in shape. And I love having tasty
snacks. I wish there was a tasty snack with less fat.
Pack and imagery: The look and feel of your product packaging is what
will differentiate it on shelves.
Tagline: What will build recall in the consumers mind when out
shopping? E.g., No one can eat just one!
While these factors form the basis of a proposition for any industry
in any country, knowing your market is essential. When it comes to
snacking, however, Indian consumers have unique preferences and
habits that retailers and manufacturers should understand to ensure
success.

Copyright 2014 The Nielsen Company

1. THE FASTEST ROUTE TO A

CONSUMERS WALLET
Is through his heart. In the past, marketers have tried a purely
emotional to completely function insight and everything in-between
to relate with their consumers. So what seems to work? Concepts
that performed well seem to have a good mix of both emotional and
functional insights with a slight skew towards emotional.

OUR ANALYSIS OF OVER 100 INITIATIVES IN

THE SNACKING SPACE DEMONSTRATES THAT
CONCEPTS WITH EMOTIONAL INSIGHTS AROUND
FUN AND OUT-OF-ORDINARY HAVE STRONGER
TRACTION WITH CONSUMERS.

2. TASTE IS YOUR BIGGEST USP

Keep it simple. Dont focus on more than two benefits. In our study, we
discovered that consumers are focused on taste and texture.
To keep up with the younger generations focus on health, a few marketers
have recently explored healthier options with their snacks. Our studies
show that while health could give your proposition an edge, you need
to ensure it never comes at the expense of good taste. We observed
initiatives emphasizing health at the cost of taste performed poorly. In
fact, when it comes to salty snacks, taste is a non-negotiable measure.

WHILE THE HEALTH FACTOR COULD GIVE YOUR

PROPOSITION AN EDGE, YOU NEED TO ENSURE
IT NEVER COMES AT THE EXPENSE OF TASTE.

We also found that Indian consumers particularly look for snacks that
are fresh, crisp and flavourful. 73% of the respondents chose freshness
as the top criteria when choosing a snacking product.

FEATURED INSIGHTS | BITING INTO THE INDIAN SNACKING MARKET

WHAT CONSUMERS WANT

73%

46%

45%

44%

FRESH

CRISPY

FLAVOURFUL

JUICY

43%

41%

41%

39%

FRUITY

CRUNCHY

SMOOTH

HOT

3. A MATTER OF CHOICE
Indian consumers are an adventurous lot. They like trying new flavours,
and more importantly, theyll discuss their choices with others. As a
matter of fact, varianting is a key strategy weve observed particularly in
the snacks space, with marketers launching newer flavours periodically.
This not only gives consumers variety but helps create buzz for a brand.
While limited edition launches help satisfy the consumers requirement
for newness as well as to generate buzz, these launches should not
be treated as innovation. When it comes to varianting, true value add
comes through long-term innovation and this is what would drive
incrementality to your portfolio

4. PRICING IT RIGHT
Coinage is an important phenomenon in the snacking space with the
Rs 5 and Rs 10 SKU growing exponentially. Our study indicates that
maintaining an SKU at these price points do drive success for your
initiative. In 2004, while the below INR 5 price point accounted for a
bulk of sales, nearly a decade later, the situation has changed. When
you look at data from 2012, we see that the INR 5 and 10 price points
have grown significantly.

Copyright 2014 The Nielsen Company

PRICE POINTS: VALUE CONTRIBUTION

23

2
7

16
11

2004
8

10

6
47

21

2012

6
18

32

<5

6-9

10

11-19

20

21-29

30

>30

Source: Nielsen

COINAGE TENDS TO PL AY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE

CATEGORY. RS 5 AND RS 10 SKUs GREW EXPONENTIALLY
COMPARED TO THOSE WITH HIGHER PRICE POINTS.

5. LEVERAGE EXISTING GOODWILL

Indian consumers are willing to try new productsup to a point. Nielsen
data shows that consumers prefer, and indeed actively look for, brand
equity as an assurance of quality. If you can leverage a strong parent
brand, do so. When one of the worlds biggest brand of biscuits was
launched in India, the company made sure to leverage a known parent
brand name. The strategy seems to have worked as the brand went on
to become one of the most successful launches in recent times.

6. DISTRIBUTION CAN MAKE OR BREAK

YOUR PRODUCT
Finally, never underestimate the importance of distributing your
product well. Even in distribution, quality trumps quantitysome of
the top snacking companies are focusing on the quality of stores they
place their products in as opposed to merely increasing their presence
in a growing number of stores. As you can see from the chart below,
companies that were successful, focused not only on growing their
distribution but also on growing outlets with higher dealer offtake.

FEATURED INSIGHTS | BITING INTO THE INDIAN SNACKING MARKET

25.0
INDIAN CO.

DISTRIBUTION
GROWTH%

20.0
15.0
10.0
INDIAN CO.

5.0

INDIAN CO.

MNC

0.0

MNC

INDIAN CO.

-5.0

-5.0

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

PER DEALER OFFTAKE

GROWTH%

HIGH 3
LOW 3

High 3: Top 3 fastest growing Snacking companies from amongst top 10

Low 3: Bottom 3 fastest growing Snacking companies from amongst top 10
Size of Bubble: Values Sales(MAT Sep13); Growth is Sep MAT 13 vs Sep MAT 12; Source: Nielsen RMS

Keeping these guidelines in mind when framing your strategies in the

snacking category will go a long way in helping you achieve success in
this segment.

THE NIELSEN QUALITATIVE VIEW

BY SARBANI SEN, DIRECTOR, NIELSEN INDIA

Snacking is inherent to Indian food culture although it lacks overt social

endorsement unlike meals which are ritually sanctified. Snacking has
traditionally implied a variety of sensorial experience in terms of flavour,
taste, shape, texture, ingredients, appearance & accompaniments.

Category growth could be attributed to the fast paced, out-of-home lifestyle,

increased frequency of socialising and a gradual erosion of the family sitdown meal culture.

Though there is increasing health consciousness among consumers, with

snacks, the communication has to first relay a tantalising taste experience.
Interestingly, cookery shows today are helping consumers bridge taste and
health with innovation in the method of preparation and inclusion of healthy
ingredients.

Besides flavour, marketers could also experiment with product format,

presentation and packaging to appeal to the consumer. For example peri peri
masala sachets with the product, quick recipe ideas on the packaging and so
on.

A price tag in the Rs. 5-20 range leads to impulsiveness and experimentation
in the category.

Copyright 2014 The Nielsen Company

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DOLLY JHA
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
NIELSEN INDIA

Priyanka Kartha, Abhishek Dubey from the Nielsen Innovation

Practice, Amar Saxena from the Retail Measurement Services
team and Shivani Mathur from the Consumer Insights team
contributed to this issue of Featured Insights.

ABOUT NIELSEN
Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and
measurement company with leading market positions in marketing
and consumer information, television and other media measurement,
online intelligence and mobile measurement. Nielsen has a presence
in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA
and Diemen, the Netherlands.
For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.
Copyright 2014 The Nielsen Company. All rights reserved. Nielsen
and the Nielsen logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of
CZT/ACN Trademarks, L.L.C. Other product and service names are
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

FEATURED INSIGHTS | BITING INTO THE INDIAN SNACKING MARKET